John Cholish, right, in a recent UFC fight, and inset, suited up in his work clothes. (
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Wall Street trader John Cholish is in Brazil this week on vacation — but don’t look for him in a nightclub or soaking up the sun at Ipanema Beach.
No, the 29-year-old Ivy League grad flew 5,000 miles to get into a fight — the Ultimate Fighting Championship, that is.
Cholish is a mixed martial arts fighter who took a week’s vacation from Beacon Energy Solutions to travel to Jaraguá do Sul, Brazil, to compete tonight in a UFC fight.
While plenty of Wall Streeters knock around in gyms and some even box on the amateur level, Cholish, a 155-pound lightweight, combined his athletic ability (he wrestled at Cornell), his passion for mixed martial arts and an intense training schedule to follow his dream of becoming a professional fighter.
He has an 8-2 record since turning pro in 2007 — including a win in two UFC bouts.
“I fight because I love it,” Cholish said in a telephone interview this week. “MMA is different. You really have to have a passion for it. It’s very dangerous. People try to say it’s gotten safer, and it has. But there’s still a lot of injuries.”
Leaving work every day at 5 p.m. and then spending another several hours in the gym sounds like a lot of abuse.
“I thought this will be a cool thing to do once to tell my grandkids about,” said Cholish. “I never thought I’d actually like it.”
A bachelor living in Long Island City, Cholish must really like fighting — he certainly isn’t in it for the money as he got paid just $6,000 for his last fight.
Cholish has never been hurt too badly while fighting — although at times, he has shown up at work with black eyes and assorted scrapes.
The folks at the office, he says, are understanding. In fact, his boss, Stephen Kessler, is in Brazil to watch the bout.
Kessler sees his trader’s UFC career as another outlet for a Wall Street professional with a very competitive nature. While he takes plenty of physical abuse fighting, Cholish believes the sport is just as much mental — “a chess match” — as it is physical.
Cholish will have to bring both sides of his game tonight. If he loses, it’ll be his second straight defeat — and UFC fighters have been known to be cut after losing a couple of bouts in a row.